De Angelis blames Capirossi for crash

The incident took both riders out of the race, and left Suzuki rider Capirossi with hand injuries that might rule him out of the forthcoming British Grand Prix.

De Angelis escaped injury, and felt he had been making a legitimate passing attempt.

"I was making up positions after a bad start and had closed in on Capirossi," he said.

"Loris went too deep into the first corner and ran a little wide, so I tried to get up the inside of him.

"Unfortunately he closed the door on the exit of the corner and we hit each other and crashed. It's a shame because I think today was a race where we could have picked up some important points."

But the Suzuki team emphatically blamed de Angelis for the crash.

"De Angelis rammed Loris off the track," said team boss Paul Denning. "Loris gave everything - as always - and deserved a lot better for his efforts."

While one of his riders was being accused of over-aggression, Gresini team manager Fausto Gresini criticised de Angelis' teammate Shinya Nakano for a lack of aggression after the Japanese rider came home ninth.

"Shinya rode another solid race but is lacking some aggression in the battle for positions and this is not the first time we've seen this," Gresini said. "Obviously we need to improve on it before the next race."

However Nakano believes the bike's set-up - rather than his approach - was to blame.

"We clearly need something to help us towards better results and I think the answer could like in changing some aspects of the bike set-up so that it is more suited to my style of riding," he said.

"I need to be able to ride with more aggression so that I can be fast from the opening laps and stay in touch with the riders in front."